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Amazon has partnered with blockchain incubator ConsenSys to enable its customers to build and manage their own blockchain platforms in an easy-to-use manner with ConsenSys’ Ethereum-based cloud platform called Kaleido.

The move is part of an effort to make blockchain, the technology underpinning bitcoin, more accessible to customers of Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing arm of Amazon.com.

“Introducing Kaleido to AWS customers is going to help customers move faster and not worry about managing blockchain themselves,” Amazon Web Services said in a statement.

Blockchain For Business 101

Kaleido co-founder Steve Cerveny said the blockchain business cloud will enable customers of Amazon Web Services to launch and operate blockchain networks without spending millions of dollars writing custom code.

“They don’t have to become PhDs in cryptography,” Cerveny told CNBC. “We give them a simple platform to build their company on blockchain.”

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, who’s also the founder of ConsenSys, introduced Kaleido during Blockchain Week in New York on May 15, 2018.

Lubin said Amazon’s collaboration with Kaleido marks a turning point for Ethereum and for blockchain technology. “This is a heavy-duty, full-stack way of getting the company into blockchain solutions,” he said.

Lubin says blockchain can help Amazon streamline its business operations, particularly with supply-chain management.

“We have been on a mission to accelerate the adoption of Ethereum and all the benefits that decentralization can bring,” said Lubin. “We believe Kaleido will become a de-facto standard and a global blockchain platform for business.”

Facebook, JPMorgan, HSBC Explore Blockchain

Amazon joins a growing chorus of corporate juggernauts that are exploring use cases for blockchain to improve their businesses. The others include IBM, Accenture, JP Morgan, and HSBC, as CCN has reported.

David Marcus, former president of PayPal and former VP of Facebook’s Messenger unit.

James Everingham, former vice president of engineering at Instagram.

Kevin Weil, former vice president of product at Instagram.

Similarly, Samsung — the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors and smartphones — quietly signaled its confidence in blockchain when it revealed that it’s considering using a blockchain ledger system to track its global shipments in a move that could slash its shipping costs by 20 percent.

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Lubin said Consensys is currently overseeing more than 50 blockchain projects, and has experienced an exponential spike in interest from multi-national corporations.

“Three years ago we were getting calls from companies trying to spell blockchain and trying to order one in a color because their boss told them they should get a blockchain,” Lubin laughed. “At this point, there are tens of thousands of companies around the world that have real sophistication around this.”